WITH the arrest of two out of three suspects in the murder and dismemberment of a German businessman in Chonburi last week Deputy National Police Chief Pol. Lt. Gen. Surachate Hakparn said his team is now targeting a mafia gang going by the name “Outlaw” with one of the suspects allegedly being a key member, Naewna said today (July 12).
This followed the arrest of two German nationals, Mr. Olaf Thorsten Brinkmann and Mrs. Petra Christl Grundgreif, in the murder and dismemberment of Mr. Hans-Peter Mack, 62, also a German.
Mack had disappeared after driving from his house at a housing estate in Nong Prue subdistrict, Bang Lamung district, around noon on July 4 to go meet a foreign broker at Jomtien beach to discuss the purchase of a land plot on Koh Samui worth hundreds of millions baht.
A third suspect, Mr. Sahruek Kareem Uddin, a Pakistani holding Thai nationality, is being chased with police expecting to nab him soon.
Upon being arrested at a club in Bangkok after fleeing Chonburi on a stolen motorcycle last night, Brinkmann was taken to Nong Prue police station for interrogation but has refused to testify, Pol. Lt. Gen. Surachate, nicknamed Big Joke, said.
However enough evidence had been gathered including fingerprints, palm prints, DNA traces, other traces at the house in which the freezer holding Mack’s dismembered body parts was placed and cigarette butts.
The landlord is also facing charges on the moving and hiding of a dead body within his premises, he added.
With police now investigating whether any Thais were involved in this brutal murder, Pol. Lt. Gen. Surachate accused Brinkmann of being a key member of the Outlaw mafia gang.
Brinkmann had previously faced drug charges, he added.
“These groups are transnational criminal gangs that move to live in important tourist destinations such as Pattaya and Nong Prue. They come for a visit but then start acting as influential mafia. Any foreigners who want to do business have to go through these people.
“Henceforth they won’t be around with an order given to together search and check,” the Deputy National Police Chief said.
Upon being caught these criminals’ visas will be withdrawn and they will be pushed out of the country and blacklisted, he said, adding that crimes like kidnap by Chinese and German gangs affected Pattaya’s image.
Thai police coordinated with the German embassy about this case with the latter appreciating that police teams were able to protect Mack’s wife and his two sons. Germany has given information about this group which will be used in the investigation.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Murder suspect Mr. Olaf Thorsten Brinkmann covered his face with a shirt upon being taken into Nong Prue police station last night. Photos: Matichon
Insert: Deputy National Police Chief Pol. Lt. Gen. Surachate Hakparn. Photo: Naewna
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